F-Rank Secretly Becomes Stronger - Chapter 23

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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23

“Why do you come bother me every day.”

“I don’t have anything else to do during the rest period anyway besides training.”

Late morning.

The hospital ward I went straight to after waking up and eating.

When I visited Mother, who could barely move and was just lying still in bed due to her knee surgery, she pretended to be annoyed on the surface but didn’t actually tell me not to come.

“Did you say the rest period was a week?”

“Yeah, it ends in two days so I’m planning to go right back in.”

“…I see.”

An expression that seemed somehow unsettled.

I could instinctively tell she was on the verge of pouring out worried words, so I was about to quickly change the subject when.

Buzz-

My cell phone on the desk rang with perfect timing.

“Just a moment.”

The number I saw when I picked up my cell phone to check.

Since it showed only a number instead of a name, it wasn’t someone I knew.

“Hello?”

[What are you doing?]

“…Who is this?”

Calling from an unknown number and asking what I’m doing right off the bat.

When I asked in confusion for a moment, an answer came back with a cold tone.

[Han Sui.]

“Ah.”

Right, she had given me her phone number yesterday.

She had only given me the number and I hadn’t gotten hers separately, so it wasn’t saved.

“Why did you call?”

[To spar.]

“You want to do it again today?”

[Yeah. You said you train every day anyway.]

Sui was requesting another sparring match, apparently without any mental damage despite getting beaten so badly yesterday.

‘Well, she actually seemed to enjoy it.’

She kept repeating that it was her first time meeting a Hunter of her age who was superior, and attacked tirelessly for hours without getting tired.

Her lips didn’t exactly curve upward, but somehow excited emotions were transmitted through the clashing swords.

[I got a temporary access card from my senior too. You just need to bring yourself.]

She had already thoroughly completed all preparations.

Actually, going to a major guild to use good training facilities would be beneficial for him too, but.

“I can’t today.”

Today was a bit difficult to hang out with her.

[Why?]

“I couldn’t buy equipment yesterday because I was training with you.”

The weapon I couldn’t obtain because we ran into each other at the shop and went straight to spar.

Besides swords and armor, I also needed to buy potions, so I didn’t have time today.

[Then let’s do it tomorrow.]

“Tomorrow won’t work either. I’m entering a Gate in two days so I need to rest well.”

[….]

A moment of silence following the consecutive rejections.

Just when I was feeling a bit awkward for rejecting her so much, she spoke again.

[…Are you going to buy a longsword today?]

“I’m going to buy a longsword and potions, and get everything ready before entering the Gate.”

[I see.]

Fortunately, she seemed to understand well.

I was about to promise to meet another time and hang up the phone.

But Sui spoke again in her blunt voice.

[Then come to our guild at 2 PM this afternoon.]

“I told you I have to go buy weapons?”

[Come to our guild at 2 PM this afternoon.]

“….”

‘She didn’t understand.’

A guy who seemed to be acting out of sheer stubbornness rather than not understanding properly.

Rather than continuing this war of words, it was better to find a compromise.

“Fine, I got it. I understand. But just one hour.”

[See you later.]

The call finally ended after a one-sided conversation.

‘About an hour should be fine.’

He began reorganizing his daily plan again due to the new schedule.

After calculating the time appropriately and putting away his cell phone, Mother asked.

“Who was that? A friend?”

“An Academy classmate.”

“From what I heard, it sounded like a girl’s voice.”

A mischievous smile appeared faintly on her face.

Unlike her usual gentle smile, this expression was quite playful.

“Son, are you already hitting on girls just because you became a Hunter?”

“Hitting on… she’s just a classmate.”

“Mother would like to have a friendly, daughter-like daughter-in-law.”

Today was a day when no one seemed to listen to him properly.

Perhaps because she saw her son, who had never once brought up anything related to girls before, talking on the phone with a woman, she became even more excited and started chattering away by herself.

“You’re meeting her later, right? Hurry home and put on some nice clothes.”

“It’s not like that.”

“I understand, so hurry up!”

Mother patted his thigh, urging him on.

Even though there was still plenty of time before the meeting, she didn’t listen and tried to send her son off somehow.

Though she acted playfully on the surface, she was actually worried that her son might not be able to hang out properly with friends because of her.

Jung Juhyeok knew this too, so he couldn’t just keep sitting there.

He reluctantly got up from his seat.

“Have a good date~”

“….”

Mother waved her hand with an expression that looked more cheerful than usual.

Since he didn’t dislike that, he quietly left the hospital room, only saying he’d come again tomorrow.

*

“You came.”

“I’m only going to train for exactly one hour and then leave.”

“Okay, let’s go in.”

Her head nodded slightly.

She handed him the access card she had prepared and said.

“I’ve prepared everything inside.”

“The sparring hall? The guild staff prepares everything there anyway.”

The sparring hall where all necessary equipment was prepared on time if you just made a reservation.

She probably meant she had made the reservation.

Thinking roughly along those lines, he followed her into the building.

Soon they arrived at the sparring hall without saying anything, and a setup different from usual greeted Jung Juhyeok.

“…What’s this?”

A real sword placed in the center of the sparring hall.

That wasn’t all.

Expensive-looking armor and next to it, a bag that seemed quite heavily packed.

He looked at Sui with questioning eyes.

She turned her head to face Jung Juhyeok and spoke calmly.

“After I finished talking with you on the phone, I asked Grandfather for help. He said he’d pick out all the best items, so they should be good stuff.”

“….”

Her gaze didn’t feel like a joke at all.

Han Sui wasn’t the type of person to put this much effort into joking with someone in the first place.

Still, it was honestly hard to believe, so he asked to confirm.

“You brought all that stuff to give to me?”

“Yes.”

An answer without hesitation.

Sui stared directly at his face and continued speaking.

“So we’re training together all day today?”

“Huh.”

I’m so dumbfounded I can’t even let out a hollow laugh.

To think she’d buy all this equipment just because we couldn’t train together for one day.

Admiring her generous heart, I slowly checked the equipment placed in the sparring hall.

‘They’re all luxury brand items.’

Famous designs I could recognize at a glance even with just a quick look.

The packed backpack was also filled with various potions and emergency supplies needed for gate expeditions.

“Let’s spar now.”

After I looked around for a moment, she approached and handed me a wooden sword.

Juhyeok looked back and forth between Sui who had come up to him and the gifts, then carefully asked.

“Is your family rich?”

“What’s the exact standard for being rich?”

Just asking that question back already gave off a strong aura of wealth.

There was no need to dig deeper into her background.

Whether she was rich or not, these weren’t items he could just accept anyway.

Juhyeok organized the backpack neatly and stood up from his spot.

“I’ll spar with you, but I won’t accept this.”

“You won’t accept it?”

“Yeah, I won’t.”

He firmly refused the gift.

He turned his eyes toward the items and said.

“All of this together would easily cost over a billion won. How could I accept something like this?”

“We have a lot of these at home, so it doesn’t matter.”

“Still, I can’t.”

Even if the giver says it’s okay, you have to consider the recipient’s position too.

“Usually when you give such expensive gifts to a friend, it can actually poison the relationship.”

If I receive this much, what do I do when it’s my turn to give something next time?

If I don’t prepare something similar then, I’ll start feeling awkward for no reason.

“I’m not someone well-off enough to give you such expensive things.”

“You don’t need to give me anything back.”

“Even if you say that, the burden in my heart won’t easily go away.”

If I were someone oblivious, I would have just accepted these items and been purely happy.

If I accepted such expensive items, I felt like I’d develop a sense of obligation in my meetings with her.

Having such feelings between friends was something I detested.

“I’m uncomfortable with it, so I’ll refuse.”

“…You’re uncomfortable.”

Upon hearing the word uncomfortable, her voice noticeably became smaller.

Her expression remained the same, but I could clearly feel she had become dejected.

I thought she was someone who didn’t show emotions well, but seeing this, it seemed that wasn’t entirely the case.

‘She probably doesn’t know about this stuff because she’s always alone.’

Her social circle was even narrower than his own, who only went back and forth between the training ground, classroom, and dormitory.

At least from what Juhyeok had seen, he’d never seen her hanging out with friends.

‘Right, then she might not know.’

She usually didn’t talk much, and with her expressionless face plus the label of genius, kids her age would always feel distant from her.

He could roughly guess why she had acted this way.

Juhyeok quietly took the wooden sword from Sui’s hand.

“We can go shopping for items tomorrow, so let’s just keep sparring all day like yesterday.”

“Huh…?”

“What, don’t want to?”

Her expression was slightly dazed, as if this wasn’t the development she expected.

As I wondered if there had ever been so many changes in her facial expressions, she shook her head vigorously and answered.

“No, I don’t dislike it. It’s just…”

“Just what.”

“You said you were uncomfortable earlier.”

“Did I say you were uncomfortable? I said your gift was uncomfortable.”

Though honestly, the person who gave such a gift would normally be uncomfortable too.

Since he knew what thoughts she had when preparing the gift, it felt more pitiful than uncomfortable.

“If you’re that desperate in the future, just ask me directly. Don’t go through the trouble of preparing things like this.”

“….”

Again, she quietly stared at his face intently.

She gazed into his eyes for a moment, then nodded her head.

“Yeah, I will.”

The corners of her mouth seemed to rise ever so slightly.

Having persuaded her well, he was about to clear away the items for sparring when.

“At least it’s fortunate that some shameless bastard didn’t latch onto her.”

A gruff voice came from the direction of the door that hadn’t been closed yet.

The owner of the voice he confirmed by looking up.

Hair that had turned dignifiedly white.

A small frame that probably wasn’t even 170 centimeters tall.

In contrast, forearms with veins bulging prominently.

Even burn scars covering the left side of his face.

The features were so distinctive that three syllables immediately popped into his head.

“Han Sanguk?”

“Rude bastard. Call me Master Han Sanguk.”

Jung Juhyeok had inadvertently spoken informally due to the unexpected appearance of this character.

However, Sui, who was beside him, looked at him with a calm expression.

“Grandfather, why did you come?”

“I heard Sui made a friend, so I came to see what kind of friend it was~”

His attitude changed to a completely different dimension from how he treated Jung Juhyeok.

It was absurd to see his stern face melt away in just a few seconds, but there was an even more absurd fact.

“Your grandfather is Master Han Sanguk?”

“Yeah. My paternal grandfather.”

The blacksmith called Korea’s living legend.

The artifact weapons he made weren’t something you could obtain just by having money.

To think she had such a person as her paternal grandfather.

He had no idea since they had no particular connection.

‘Now I understand why all her equipment is from the same brand.’

All weapons and armor made by the company her grandfather established.

For her, these weapons were no different from 100 won coins rolling around at home.

“I was worried that some mosquito-like bastard had latched onto my granddaughter… but fortunately, that wasn’t the case.”

Master Han Sanguk approached closer and stared intently at his face.

His gaze was completely different from when he looked at Sui.

Was it because some stranger he’d never seen was next to his precious granddaughter?

Or did he know that Jung Juhyeok was somehow different from ordinary hunters?

Slightly anxious thoughts arose, but at times like this, he needed to act confidently.

“Hello. I’m Jung Juhyeok, Han Sui’s Academy classmate.”

“I know. The guy who’s F-rank but carried alone in a D-rank Gate.”

Stories flowed out smoothly, as if he had already found out all information about Jung Juhyeok.

He glared at Jung Juhyeok, who stepped forward with a confident attitude, for a while before turning his head toward the items.

“Take it. I just picked something suitable from what was in the workshop anyway.”

“Still, this is too expensive for me to accept.”

“It’s burdensome…”

A continued refusal since it was an item of an amount difficult to accept easily.

Han Sanguk fell into thought for a moment, then presented a solution not long after.

“Then I’ll give it to you in the form of a commission.”

“A commission?”

“Yeah, if we give and take from each other, there won’t be any problem.”

A finger pointing at the items.

He commissioned Jung Juhyeok with a calm expression.

“I’ll give you those things, so go to a B-rank Gate.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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